The Test

The car braked just in time.

Amid pointless conversations about society and Tendulkar, they had totally forgotten the purpose of this visit. A good looking jacket that keeps you warm. Those things have become increasingly rare.

The car swerved left on to the mall driveway and joined the several other cars making a beeline for an underground parking slot. At the mall entrance in the distance, they saw more people than there are in the whole of NCR. Or so it appeared.

The atmosphere was charged with festive spirit. Everyone had put on their best clothes. And were out looking for even better clothes.

The line was too long. They tried jumping the queue but were promptly shown the middle finger and a gun by a burly Jat they were trying to overtake.

Ahead of them crawled more than twenty cars at less than 5metres/hour. They feigned resolve for a full eight minutes. Then they took a u-turn and opted for another parking down the road.

The price for this alternative was of course a long walk back to the mall. A long, shivery walk. The temperature had hit three degrees Celsius. And the icy wind didn’t help matters much. They were covered from head to toe in the finest quality woolens. The chill paid little respect and pierced through their defenses nonetheless.

Still adlibbing ways to keep themselves warm, like blowing into their cupped palms, they ran into a strange sight. An old woman wrapped in a Sari, a sweater and a shawl sat on her haunches chaperoning an urchin. The little girl, perhaps five years of age, lied on her stomach totally naked. And not willingly.

Each time the girl attempted to cuddle against the woman, she would be pushed back in the open. After three attempts, she gave up. Behind them on the road, a car loudly screeched to a halt. The woman turned around to look at it, the urchin quick as a flash sneaked beneath the shawl. As if with years of practice, without even casting a glance, the woman pushed her so far back she almost fell off the footpath on to the service lane.

One of the guys quickly took off his jacket. The other pulled at his arm, gesturing charity be avoided. He was inhumanly, absolutely right. One act of benevolence and they would’ve walked right into the woman’s cruel trap.

The guys were educated, well-read, patrons of world cinema. One had in fact excelled at the Common Admission Test, the true test of one’s decision making abilities. And they stood there, stupefied and clueless. Grappling with the choices life had put forth. The collective wisdom acquired over all these years in the company of Hemingway and Marquez amounted to zilch.

They walked on, contemplating a fitting piece that captures their guilt.